No Ordinary Deal

A new free-trade deal threatens to undermine New Zealand’s ability to make the political decisions its people want, argue Jane Kelsey and others in a series of essays on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.

Rather than genuinely opening the way for increased trade with the US and other Pacific Rim countries, the agreement risks jeopardising financial regulation, drugs purchasing policy, food standards and health initiatives. Detailing the effects of previous trade deals on countries across the world, the authors of these challenging essays open up debate on a crucial but little discussed deal.